OSSE FY26 Whole Child and Educator Wellness Grant

Funder: District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education

The OSSE FY26 Whole Child and Educator Wellness Grant aims to enhance health and wellness in early childhood education and public schools in Washington, D.C. By fostering partnerships with community-based organizations, the grant supports initiatives that integrate health education, physical activity, and educator wellness into learning environments. This funding will empower schools to develop sustainable health programs, aligning with CDC’s Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model, ultimately promoting positive outcomes for students and educators.

Fiscal Year 2026 Whole Child and Educator Wellness Grant
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), Division of Health and Wellness (HW) is soliciting grant proposals for the fiscal year 2026 (FY26) Whole Child and Educator Wellness (WCEW) Grant. This grant is funded by local funds authorized by the Fiscal Year 2026 Local Budget Act of 2025 (effective when enacted).
The purpose of the WCEW grant is to build the capacity of early childhood education (ECE) facilities and public and public charter schools in the District of Columbia (DC) to implement policies, processes, and practices that integrate health and wellness into the ECE facility or school to create and sustain healthy learning environments and foster positive student and/or educator outcomes. The WCEW grant aims to support ECE facilities and schools in implementing programs that meet or exceed DC requirements and/or standards for health and wellness programming. Aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model, the WCEW grant supports high-quality program implementation with a focus on coordinating policy, process, and practice to improve health and learning.
Community-based organizations (CBOs) will partner with ECE facilities and schools to provide capacity-building supports using a technical assistance (TA) model, focused on these potential areas: health education, physical education (PE), physical activity, environmental education, garden-based education, farm to ECE or school programs, and educator wellness (as determined by and subject to OSSE’s local budget appropriation). As a result of the WCEW grant, ECE facility and school teams should be well-positioned – through increased individual and organization capacity – to sustain and expand health and wellness programming beyond the grant award period.